Big data from the South(s): beyond data universalism

Milan, Stefania and Treré, Emiliano ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2496-4571 2026. Big data from the South(s): beyond data universalism. Friese, Heidrun, Nolden, Marcus and Schreiter, Miriam, eds. Handbuch Soziale Praktiken und Digitale Alltagswelten, Digitale Alltagspraktiken | Everyday Digital Practices, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, pp. 129-141. (10.1007/978-3-658-44521-8_102)

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the tenets of a theory of datafication of and in the Souths, calling for a de-Westernization of critical data studies to amend the cognitive injustice that fails to recognize non-mainstream ways of knowing the world through data. It situates the “Big Data from the South” research agenda as an epistemological, ontological, and ethical program and outlines five conceptual operations to shape it: (1) moving past “data universalism”, (2) understanding the South as a composite and plural entity, (3) critically engaging with the decolonial approach, (4) bringing agency to the core of our research; and (5) embracing the imaginaries of datafication emerging from the Souths, foregrounding empowering ways of thinking data from the margins.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Additional Information:	This text is a shortened reprint, originally published in 2019 in the Special Issue Big Data from the South in Television & New Media 20(4) (Milan and Treré 2019). See on the web: https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419837739 See in ORCA: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/123351/
Publisher:	Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
ISBN:	9783658445201
ISSN:	3059-2593
Last Modified:	09 Feb 2026 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184544

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